Rockin’ return to stand up

Star-Bulletin staff

After more than six months on the road, comedian Chris Rock arrives in town this weekend for the Honolulu stop of his "No Apologies" world tour at the Blaisdell Arena.

The tour marks Rock's return to his stand-up roots, building upon the success of three platinum-certified comedy albums and five HBO comedy specials. Earlier this year, nearly 80,000 people watched him perform on the main stage at the annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee.

CHRIS ROCK

Mario Joyner, former host of MTV's "Half-Hour Comedy Hour," is scheduled to open for Rock.

As an veteran Hollywood star with more than two decades of experience in television and movies, Rock now has the freedom to work as much (or as little) as he wants on projects he truly cares about. He appeared in Adam Sandler's "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" earlier this year and lent his voice to 2007's "Bee Movie."

The roles are a far cry from the ones Rock took in "Beverly Hills Cop 2," "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" and "New Jack City," movies that helped launch his career along with a stint on "Saturday Night Live" in the late '80s and early '90s.

In recent years, Rock has moved into producing and directing his own films, starting with 2001's "Pootie Tang" and continuing with 2003's "Head of State" and 2007's "I Think I Love My Wife."

His Emmy-nominated sitcom "Everybody Hates Chris," seen on The CW and based on his teenage years growing up during the '80s in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, will return in the fall for its third season.

The announcement for Rock's Honolulu show came only a couple of weeks ago, probably to provide the star a quick island vacation during his ongoing tour.

In an April cover story in Rolling Stone magazine, Rock said it was good timing that he took up the stand-up mantle again with, as Bill Zehme wrote, "his nobly intended film career in chronic flux."

"Eh, you know, so you read a couple of scripts, and it was like, naahhh - hit the road, hit the road," said Rock. "Plus, it's the election year. It was like, come on, man! This is the time! Black guy runnin' for president against a woman - it's tailor-made for me."